Thursday, April 14, 2016

A Republican Congresswoman from Tennessee has stated that she intends to bring legislation to the House requiring that the Library of Congress retain the subject headings "alien" and "illegal alien" because changing them to "immigrant" and "undocumented immigrant" is legally and factually untrue. (Don't ask me to explain that statement as I can't.) The report went on at length about using the term illegal since that is what they are. She is against the movement to be politically correct in this situation. The bill was introduced as H.R. 4926 and was referred to the House Committee on House Administration. It may not go any further but we'll keep our eyes on it and see what happens.

As part of National Library Legislative Day 2016 (NLLD), we are offering library advocates unable to attend in person the chance to participate through Virtual Library Legislative Day (VLLD)!

This year, we’re teaming up with the Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) to help expand our efforts and take advantage of the momentum started by the nearly 400 library supporters who plan to attend NLLD. Their Chapters’ members are pledging their time to make calls, send emails, tweet, and otherwise raise awareness about library issues during the week of May 2nd. To date, the HPA has received pledges for nearly 500 actions from their members!

We think we can do our wizarding friends even better.

Over the next few weeks, please ask everyone in your circles -- members, followers, patrons, fellow library staffers, and listservs -- to join us! Once they register for VLLD, we’ll follow up by sending them talking points and other handy resources they can use to advocate easily and effectively. We’ll be including a link to a webstream of the National Library Legislative day program, live from Washington, on the morning of May 2nd. They’ll get to hear our keynote speaker, former Congressman Rush Holt, and listen in on this year’s issue briefing.